The Tories have been accused of being “utter hypocrites” after it emerged that they want to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners in England but not in Scotland. On a trip to Edinburgh, Theresa May defended plans to protect winter fuel allowance for all Scottish pensioners while cutting it for many south of the border. She said:

Well, we have devolution in the United Kingdom and, as a government, we have given the Scottish government significant powers in relation to welfare, and they make a number of decisions about various welfare benefits in Scotland.

The decision we have made about winter fuel payments is that we will continue to ensure that the least well-off pensioners are supported but there is a principle of fairness.

Scottish Tories are saying pensioners in Scotland should be exempt from the UK cuts, because the cold weather in the country increases the need for winter fuel payments (see 9.50am). Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, said:

We’ve made a different choice in Scotland in our Scottish manifesto today. We believe there shouldn’t be means testing for the winter fuel payment.

But Labour and the Lib Dems said the fact that Scottish Tories could not support the policy showed it was in trouble. Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s elections coordinator, said:

When the Scottish Tory leader comes out against her own party’s attack on pensioner incomes, I think it’s fair to say the policy is starting to unravel.

The Tory attack on pensioners’ winter fuel allowance is unfair and outrageous, and lays bare the threat they pose to pensioners’ security and living standards.

And the Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, said:

The Tories are utter hypocrites. How can they take cash off English pensioners and then give it to Scottish pensioners? It looks like a cheap election bung and it won’t wash.

May has said she wants Scotland to play a bigger part in UK life. In a speech in Edinburgh stressing her commitment to the union, she said previous governments had been inclined to adopt a “devolve and forget” approach to Scotland (see 1pm).

Tory plans for a 1% cap on public sector pay rises over the next two years could exacerbate recruitment problems, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said (see 2.07pm).

Ignore it, it’s Ipsos Mori. They always have us down in a way which is just unbelievable. They’re completely wrong. They’ve been wrong for five years. They’ve always got Ukip’s figures wrong, time and time again.

Even when we were on 20%, Ipsos Mori would have us on 10%, so I’m not worried about that at all. There was another YouGov poll yesterday which had us on 6%. That’s roughly where I believe we are.

The Creative Industries Federation, which represents those working in arts and the creative industries, has announced that it has cancelled an election event planned with Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, and Tom Watson, the deputy leader and shadow culture secretary, because members were not going to get enough time to ask questions.

The federation set up election events with all the main parties, starting with a Tory one this week, in which Matt Hancock, the culture minister, took questions for nearly an hour. But, in a press statement, it said it had cancelled the Labour event planned for Monday in Hull because the party would not agree enough time for questions. It said:

As Labour informed us that they were no longer able to devote a similar amount of time to questioning as the other parties have agreed to, we invited them to reconsider. When we could not agree, we had no choice but to pull out of the event.

The federation – the national organisation for all the UK’s creative industries, cultural education and arts – has a track record for independence and fearlessness. We are, however, non-partisan. We cannot provide a backdrop for campaign events which do not offer the opportunity for proper scrutiny.

Ruth Davidson has suggested the Tories will never consent to a second Scottish independence referendum until a “gold standard” test of unanimous party backing and support from a very large majority of Scottish voters has been met.

The Scottish Tory leader, speaking to reporters after Theresa May launched the Scottish Conservative manifesto in Edinburgh, defended the manifesto’s stance that no referendum would be agreed without “public consent” and only once the Brexit process was complete.

Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister and leader of the Scottish National party, wants a vote by spring 2019. Davidson and May have implied it would not be until the early 2020s – the timescale that they claim Brexit and new powers for Scotland will need to bed in.

Asked to define public consent by a Daily Mail reporter, May sidestepped the question, arguing only that Brexit was the issue that mattered: “Talking about a second independence referendum right now doesn’t strengthen our hand, it weakens our hand.”

Pressed on this after May’s speech, Davidson said:

The best example we have is back in 2011-12, where we had every member of the Scottish parliament voting for it because we recognised that was a mandate for it to happen. We had 92% support across the country [from opinion polls].

There was public and parliamentary-stroke-political consent there. There was agreement across everyone that this should happen. And that was the gold standard … [I] would be happy to never have a referendum; I’m a unionist and I don’t want one. I have to say we need something a lot more like what we had in 2011-12 before I think the UK government should give its consent.

I’m saying that’s the gold standard ... We have seen time and time again there is no public consent for it; people don’t want [to be] dragged back there.

Davidson’s stance relies heavily on opinion polls showing that less than 45% of Scottish voters want a second independence vote until after Brexit, but it is risky. The same polls suggest support will rise once the Brexit deal is signed. The SNP will be working very hard to maximise and highlight every problem with the Brexit talks as it bids to increase public backing for a vote.

Ed Miliband says Tory manifesto shows 'nasty party is back'

Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, has said that the publication of the Conservative manifesto shows that “the nasty party is well and truly back”. Speaking while campaigning for Labour in Morley and Outwood (Ed Balls’ old seat, won by the Tories in 2015 with a majority of 422), he said:

The Tory manifesto has unravelled in the last 24 hours in a way that I can’t remember manifestos unravelling. The truth is, there’s no costings, no clarity, no detail, but also this facade that somehow it’s a different type of Tory party. I think the facade has actually been shattered apart by what they’re doing to older people.

The Tories have tried to say as little as possible in this campaign. Now they’ve tried to say what their plans are, I think people are looking at it and not liking it at all.

Speaking to some Alzheimer’s Society campaigners he met on a walkabout, Miliband went on:

I think the mask has slipped on the Conservative party with the publication of their manifesto.

I think the nasty party is well and truly back and, if you look at them taking the winter fuel allowance away from 10 million pensioners, ending the triple lock, a tax on people who get dementia, I actually think that lots and lots of people are taking a second look at what the Tories are actually offering in this campaign and contrasting it to Labour: the investment in health and education and building a fairer society, guaranteeing pensioners the winter fuel allowance and the other benefits, including the triple lock … I think it’s all to play for in this campaign.